Open Letter to the British Film Institute

Surely a female could have been found for this prestigious role?

Such a slap in the face for real women in the industry.

Disgraceful decision to invite a rank misogynist to speak on behalf of women. Couldn't you find any actual women?

The #metoo movement highlighted the oppression of women in the film industry. You don’t need to rub it in by inviting a male misogynist to speak for women.

BFI are very misguided here. I sincerely hope this was an error due to a lack of research on the speaker they chose- Munroe as opposed to an endorsement despite the vile racism, homophobia and misogyny spewed by this person. Time will tell.

We want to hear from women not men

This is just another exercise in misogyny and female erasure. How banal.

Misogyny disguised as progressive politics. Shameful conduct from the BFI.

Women in film should be represented by women. Not trans women.

Stop womXXns erasure at all costs wherever it occurs. Keep on pushing back...

Few enough women celebrated in film as it is, utterly male dominated, and BFI adds further to this.

Ludicrous.

Not only not a woman, but not someone with any relevant experience in the film industry. You can do better than this!!

I dunno , after over a hundred years of cinema and TV , you’d have thought the BFI would’ve found an actual female to represent women , rather than a surgically altered parvenu who’s only USP as being transgender , and a failed model . It kinda diminishes the incredible achievements of actual women , doesn’t it ?

This is very telling about male power within female spaces. It's obviously not feminism. I would look seriously at the person who booked him.

Munroe Bergorf is the posh, male rent-a-gob of the day. Nothing to do with film making and nothing to do with women.

The film industry is riddled with sexism and misogyny. We are massively under represented (especially behind the camera) under paid, unheard, disrespected and, as we have seen with the #MeToo campaign, sexually harassed and abused in frightening numbers. And why is that?? Because we are BIOLOGICAL women. Nothing to do with 'gender identity' or how we 'present' etc. It is the reality of being a born woman in this society. The BFI had an opportunity to offer women in film a voice with this event. Instead, they insult us by asking a male to speak on our behalf. Now doubt they think they're being oh-so progressive. But they're not. They're letting men speak for women. Same old problem. There must be 1000s of women involved in the film industry who would have been a far better choice. Hold a conference about trans ppl in film, get Bergdorf to speak at that. This event was supposed to be about WOMEN.

If you wanted to make the point that real women will NEVER be represented then this was effective.

This is an erasure of women

There are so few women allowed a voice in this industry. This space belongs to one of them.